Obamacare enrollment soars in Wisconsin

Jan. 13, 2014

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WASHINGTON — The number of Wisconsinites who have signed up for health insurance on the federal Obamacare exchange skyrocketed in December to 40,752, up from only 5,303 the month before.

The jump aligns with a national enrollment spike during the same period. Overall, enrollment through the federal site increased from 137,000 to 1.2 million, according to data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Another 730,000 signed up through state-based exchanges, bringing total enrollment to 2.1 million as of Dec. 28.

HHS officials credited improvements to the federal web site, which had been plagued with technical issues, and the realization by hundreds of thousands of Americans that they could buy coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

“It is a brand new day for health care for millions of Americans and for the millions of families who finally have the security and peace of mind of health coverage,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters during a conference call.

The numbers are still short of expectations. Nationally, the administration had cited a target of 7 million enrollees before the deadline March 31.

In Wisconsin, the expectation was that 277,000 of the estimated 550,000 previously uninsured people would buy coverage under the law. HHS officials said Monday that they did not know how many of the new enrollees were previously uninsured.

The agency did provide data for the first time about the type of people who have signed up. In Wisconsin, 66 percent of the enrollees are over age 45. Forty-five percent are over age 55.

Only 19 percent are aged 18 to 34, the critical young, healthier slice of the population needed to even out the risks of the older, sicker people getting coverage.

The nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation issued a report last month saying that if only 25 percent of enrollees were between 18 and 34 years old, it would be a “worst-case scenario,” but that the overall impact on premiums may not be earth-shattering — that it may only increase them by 1 to 2 percent in 2015.

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Republicans seized on the lackluster enrollment of young people so far, noting that the administration had hoped at one point that the share of younger, healthy people could be as high as 38 percent.

“There’s no way to spin it: youth enrollment has been a bust so far,” said Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner. “When they see that Obamacare offers high costs for limited access to doctors —if the enrollment goes through at all — it’s no surprise that young people aren’t rushing to sign up.”

Officials at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, which is overseeing the exchanges, said they expect more young people will sign up as the deadline approaches.

“We’re actually very pleased with the percentage we have so far,” said Gary Cohen, director of CMS’s Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.

White House officials dismissed the Republican criticism as another example of unnecessary sniping that is turning off Americans to what happens in Washington.

“I think the country is kind of tired of this back-and-forth in Washington over this act,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told reporters at a briefing Monday. “I think people want us to get serious about implementing it so that they can have the protections the law affords and the affordability that is at the heart of its promise.”

He added that Republicans’ alternative proposal right now is repeal, which he said could cost $1 trillion.

“The critiques are not new. We welcome debate —it’s the music of democracy. But at some point you can’t just be for a critique, you have to be for something,” McDonough said. “I’d be eager to have that conversation with the speaker and others on what the alternative is.”

Still, administration officials said they are ramping up outreach to young people and also to men, who represent only 44 percent of enrollees in Wisconsin and 46 percent across the nation.

While many of the technical issues with enrolling on healthcare.gov may be getting better, Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Ted Nickel sounded the alarm last week about issues on the back end — the dissemination of enrollee information to insurers.

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“Consumers who enroll through healthcare.gov but do not receive correspondence from the insurer confirming enrollment should contact the insurer directly to verify they are enrolled and payment has been received,” Nickel wrote in an advisory Jan. 6.

White House officials on Monday maintained that the error rate for such transmissions from the federal web site in December was “near zero.” Administration officials said they still are working on smoothing out that process as well.

“As we’ve said, we’ll continue to make improvements to healthcare.gov,” said CMS spokeswoman Julie Bataille. “The site has supported the demand we’ve seen from consumers and we are now eager to see more come in and find the plan that’s right for them.”

Sebelius said that the federal and state web sites combined have so far received more than 53 million visits, while state and local call centers have fielded more than 11 million calls.

“So as you can see, we’re seeing a very strong response to the marketplace,” she said. “Once again, I remind everyone that open enrollment runs through March 31, 11 weeks from today.”